Wigan Athletic drop to 14th in League One after rare home defeat

Wigan Athletic 0 - 2 Cardiff City

Wigan fell to their first home league defeat of the season after Cardiff picked up a fairly comfortable three points.

Authors | Amy W

Stadium | The Brick Community Stadium

The home side went into the contest still stung from their midweek EFL Cup exit at the hands of Wycombe, while Cardiff arrived buoyed by victory over Premier League Burnley in the same competition, a response to their first league defeat of the season against Bradford City.

It was the visitors who found their rhythm quicker, Ryan Wintle drawing a strong save from Sam Tickle with a long-range strike. Wigan offered resistance of their own, Fraser Murray’s header forcing a nervy moment at the other end.

Cardiff made the breakthrough when Rubin Colwill slipped the ball to Perry Ng, whose shot found the net with the aid of a deflection.

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The Latics should have drawn level before the interval but Christian Saydee was denied at close range by Nathan Trott. Ng continued to impress, forcing another save from Tickle, while Jason Kerr’s header narrowly missed the target as Wigan searched for a way back. Trott again intervened to block substitute Dara Costelloe.

Any hopes of a late recovery were extinguished when Morgan Fox tripped Salech in stoppage time, earning a red card. Salech calmly dispatched the resulting penalty to seal Cardiff’s win.

The Bluebirds climb back to fourth in the table, while Wigan slide to 14th after suffering their first league defeat at home this season.

Post match reaction

Source  | Wigan Athletic YouTube channel

After the match, Wigan manager Ryan Lowe spoke of the need for him and his coaching staff to rally around the squad in the coming days as they look to turn their fortunes around before next weekend’s long journey to Plymouth Argyle.

This was a view supported by Wigan fan Callum Jones. He told us: “I thought we played ok. Obviously, there is a distinct difference in quality, but there’s a reason why Cardiff are among the favourites to get promoted.”